


things change, times change

by plumtrees



Series: C(4,2) = 6 [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Accidents, Alternate Universe - Final Haikyuu Quest, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Western, Angst with a Happy Ending, Broken Promises, Constellations, Established Relationship, Falling In Love, M/M, Married Couple, Reincarnation, Self-Sacrifice, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 15:51:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9079357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plumtrees/pseuds/plumtrees
Summary: People got to change with them Iwaizumi across three lifetimes, and how he continues to love and lose the same man.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for the prompt "OiIwa and _Things change. Times change. People got to change with them._ " which I found out was from Begin Again and ofc I had to write this fic to the movie soundtrack! (particularly, _Lost Stars_ )

Iwaizumi had already made peace with the fact that he was doomed to die without ever seeing anything past the rolling sand that surrounded his town.

He was born into a life with countless responsibilities as the eldest child and the only son of a bedridden widower. Iwaizumi had worked the inn the moment he’d become of age, using what money he’d earn to feed his family, buy medicine for his father. It wasn’t the easiest job, with men getting too crass once they’ve had a bit of ale in them, or passing out on bar stools without paying the night’s tab. Sometimes there were brawls, sometimes money ran short, sometimes Iwaizumi woke up in the mornings and wished he never did.

But still, something made it all worthwhile.

Theirs was a small town in the middle of nowhere, the evening chatter composed of only the latest gossip: _who bedded who last fortnight, how the crops are doing, when the fine vagabond was coming back ‘round_.

The last question was asked all year-round, up until the wanderer’s tall silhouette appeared past the desolation of the desert. Curious but delighted eyes followed him to his usual first stop at the only inn in town. That had been how he and Iwaizumi first met, and that was how they continued to meet. He introduced himself as Oikawa and nothing else. Iwaizumi never questioned it. What use after all, does a lone traveler have for more than one name?

For every return, Oikawa would tell him more about himself, more about the world. Oikawa was the son of a merchant, had been travelling since he was a baby swaddled in cotton. He told Iwaizumi of settlements close to the ocean, salt in every breath and fish so fresh they didn’t even need to season it. He told him of forests where sunlight couldn’t penetrate through the thicket. He told him of places so cold three coats wouldn’t be enough. And all throughout the night Iwaizumi would be completely enraptured by his tales and shamelessly distracted by his handsome features.

 _That Iwaizumi boy is smitten._ they’d whisper when they think Iwaizumi couldn’t hear, voices heavy with pity, as they’d always been whenever he was concerned. They thought him a fool to fall for the man who only showed up once a year like a town legend, but Iwaizumi didn’t care. He could only hope against all hope that maybe Oikawa felt the same, that the flush on his cheeks whenever their eyes met was more than just the alcohol, that the way his face brightened when Iwaizumi greeted him over the inn’s counter was not just wishful thinking, that the nights when Oikawa gently took his wrist and led him into his bed wasn’t just to satisfy a carnal urge.

On the day of his departure, Oikawa woke him, just moments before dawn. His face was unreadable, his body solid and warm and naked beneath Iwaizumi’s hands. Usually, this would be his cue to clothe himself and leave, but before he could even rise, Oikawa spoke, voice still hoarse with sleep but eyes steely with determination.

“Run away with me.” Oikawa whispered, and to Iwaizumi it sounded like the creak of the gates as the shepherd boy prepared to let the cattle loose, the first tentative flap of wings before a bird took flight.

It was a while before those words penetrated through the fog of sleep, even longer for Iwaizumi to convince himself that this was no dream. When he came to he was sitting up, Oikawa’s larger hands wrapped around his, as if trying to keep him from fleeing.

 _Yes._ Iwaizumi wanted to say. He wanted to jump into Oikawa’s arms and say yes until it became the only word his tongue knew.

And maybe if Iwaizumi were a more selfish man, he would have. If Iwaizumi didn’t have a heart far too big for him, he would have. As it were, all he could do was think of was this inn, this sad, seedy little building with its termite-hollowed beams that housed the family that he was duty-bound to care for until his dying breath.

He turned to look in those beautiful eyes that have seen more than he could ever hope to, and said the words that broke his and Oikawa’s hearts.

“I can’t.”

He took it graciously, as all gentlemen are won’t to do. Kissed Iwaizumi’s knuckles and nodded in understanding, and while Iwaizumi sat on the bed, wallowing in regret, Oikawa donned his cloak and brought his hat low over his head and promised to be back.

For what remained of Iwaizumi’s life, he never saw him again.

 

-

 

Hajime woke up one night for no reason at all, the space beside him cold, no breathing accompanying his own.

He gathered the blankets to his chest, climbed up to their roof and found his husband with legs hanging off the gables and watching the stars. Since before their marriage, Tooru had always been fond of the night sky, curious brown eyes sparkling as they traced the same images the ancient stargazers did. Tooru did not stir when Hajime settled beside him, draping the blanket over their huddled-up forms. The night was cold but Tooru’s body still bore heat. He was probably used to far worse temperatures than this.

“Do you see that, Hajime?” he said, so sudden and conversational you’d think Hajime had been here the whole time, “that’s Gemini.”

Tooru pointed upwards and traced lines to connect a cluster of stars. The images were always lost to Hajime, unable to decipher the shapes Tooru claimed to see, but Hajime couldn’t bear to shoot him down with his disbelief, so he only nodded and leaned against Tooru’s shoulder in silence. To be fair, Hajime saw the beauty in it as well, could not deny the strange calm that laid over him at the sight of the night’s diamond-speckled gradient.

“Did you know that Pollux willingly gave half his immortality to Castor,” Tooru whispered out of the blue, the short hairs on Hajime’s head parting in deference to his words, “so that they could be together for eternity?”

Hajime blinked up at him. He had never been able to understand Tooru’s interest in this planet’s mythology, when those from his own are far richer, far more interesting. Tooru’s eyes shone in the darkness, his hexagonal pupils contracting, focusing on Hajime and reducing everything else to a blur.

“I will never leave you, love.” Tooru whispered, and Hajime let Tooru kiss him right under the stars of his birth, right under the stars born of two people who refused to be apart.

The day after was Tooru’s scheduled return to his homeplanet to finalize his transfer. _A cycle of the moon is all it will take._ he’d said. At the gates of the spaceport Tooru kissed him until they nearly overbalanced with how far Tooru had dipped him. His laughter was like the sweetest music, echoing in his ears until his husband was out of sight, dissolved into the crowd of travelers.

When he finally unstuck his hand from the gates, it was with the final, comforting thought that when he slept that night, he’ll be one day closer to seeing Tooru again.

But he woke up the next day to dozens of messages and video mails on his communicator and a heart that was beating far too fast. Something was wrong.

A simple voice command was all it took for a screen to float up in front of him with the flight status of Starship SJ 0104. The ship number on Tooru’s documents. The ship number he’d asked Tooru to repeat over and over so he wouldn’t accidentally board the wrong ship like he did last time.

 _Mid-warp collision_ was written in red right beneath the ship’s identifier. _All 19,026 passengers and crew lost_.

His communicator was ringing again, but he couldn’t hear anything past the vacuum in his ears, past the roar of blood pulsing through his body. His vision blurred, his body heaving with the effort to get enough air in.

Somewhere, in some locked off corner of his mind, a bitter voice contemplated how the pain of being abandoned was just as awful the second time around.

 

-

 

When Oikawa’s magic pierced through him, the one thought that prevailed was _finally, I’m not the one who gets left behind_.

He chuckled a bit at his morbid humor, but a spurt of crimson accompanied each pained exhale, a physical manifestation of his life slowly slipping out of him. Dimly, he felt a hand scoop the back of his neck, supporting him like he was a newborn. A hand swept frantically over his torso, tugging off his armor in search of what ailed him, but there was no wound, nothing to heal, no way to save him.

“What did you do?” Oikawa sobbed, and his crying face came into view, still as ugly as Iwaizumi remembered. “Iwa-chan, what did you do? This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

What did he do? He did the only thing that could be done.

With the last of his consciousness he concentrated hard on Oikawa’s features. The eyes tainted blood-red were now as brown as fertile soil; the hands cradling his neck and clenched tight over his shirt no longer bore nails as sharp as daggers; his lip curled back with each sob, and Iwaizumi saw the fangs had gone.

And just like that, his will to fight bled out of him, relief easing his tensed joints. He had succeeded. The mage was right.

He closed his eyes, the scent of blood and Oikawa filling his every trembling breath.

“Iwa—Hajime, please stay awake. _Please_.”

Oikawa’s tears fell hot on his face, sliding down the slope of his cheek to mingle with his own. Iwaizumi tried to comply, at least leave this world doing one last thing as Oikawa’s knight, but his lids were too heavy. He no longer had the strength to move even a finger.

 _I’m sorry._ he wanted to say. _I love you, Tooru. I’m sorry I had to leave._

But he was out of time.

He felt the hands of death gently pulling his soul from his body, numbness spreading and sensations leaving as he was lifted from this plane to the next. Grief continued to echo in his ears, pleas, prayers, _Hajime_. Something in him yearned to reach out, to anchor himself to the broken shards of that voice, but the last threads tying him to life finally snapped, and he knew nothing more.

 

-

 

Without fail, Iwaizumi finds him again: this time on gleaming wooden floors, connected by a ball passing from Oikawa’s fingertips to Iwaizumi’s palm.

In this incarnation, Oikawa chases after dreams of fame and splendor with the vigor of a man with nothing to lose. In this incarnation, Oikawa believes in life beyond the atmosphere of Earth. In this incarnation, Oikawa sometimes holds him long and tight, like he’s afraid to let him go.

It has been three lifetimes, and yet Oikawa still continues to surprise him now, again and again with how much depth he carries; with all his little habits and idiosyncrasies and the way he carries the comforting familiarity of the Oikawa Iwaizumi has known for three lifetimes and yet bears the mystery and unpredictability of a completely different man at the same time.

Maybe this time the fates will be kind. Maybe this time they will have the entirety of their lives to themselves, with no cruel curse or tragedy cutting it short, no duty to tear them apart. Maybe this time, the universe will repay them for all the pain by letting them have this.

Maybe this time, Oikawa will even remember who he is.

Iwaizumi can’t wait.

**Author's Note:**

> [kpop and haikyuu, mostly](http://plumtreeforest.tumblr.com)~


End file.
